Lisa Borel, the wife of star jockey Calvin Borel, was ahead of the fascinator curve. She wore this little number last year, when her husband won his third Kentucky Derby in a row.

Lisa Borel, the wife of star jockey Calvin Borel, was ahead of the fascinator curve. She wore this little number last year, when her husband won his third Kentucky Derby in a row.

Photo: Charles Bertram, MCT

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Princess Beatrice of York (R) with her sister Princess Eugenie of York arrive to attend the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011 in London, England. The marriage of the second in line to the British throne is to be led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and will be attended by 1900 guests, including foreign Royal family members and heads of state. Thousands of well-wishers from around the world have also flocked to London to witness the spectacle and pageantry of the Royal Wedding. less

Princess Beatrice of York (R) with her sister Princess Eugenie of York arrive to attend the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011 in London, England. The ... more

Photo: Chris Jackson, Getty Images

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Models wear hats by Philip Treacy, British hat designer, during the fashion show at Neiman Marcus on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008 in Houston, TX.

Models wear hats by Philip Treacy, British hat designer, during the fashion show at Neiman Marcus on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008 in Houston, TX.

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Houston Chronicle

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Models wear hats by Philip Treacy, British hat designer, during the fashion show at Neiman Marcus on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008 in Houston, TX.

Models wear hats by Philip Treacy, British hat designer, during the fashion show at Neiman Marcus on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008 in Houston, TX.

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Houston Chronicle

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Models wear hats by Philip Treacy, British hat designer, during the fashion show at Neiman Marcus on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008 in Houston, TX.

Models wear hats by Philip Treacy, British hat designer, during the fashion show at Neiman Marcus on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008 in Houston, TX.

Not quite a hat but more than a headband, fascinators are suddenly the hottest accessory going.

Since the royal wedding in Great Britain, they've become a true object of fascination, showing up on this side of the Atlantic in the flurry of late-spring events that traditionally call for head wear — including this past weekend's Kentucky Derby.

These fanciful accessories - dressed up with decorative bits of feathers, beads, netting, jewels, bows and the like -can vary widely in size and design.

Generally, they have a small base and affix to the hair with hidden clips or headbands instead of fitting over the skull as traditional hats do.

As Patricia Underwood, a British-born milliner based in New York, noted, what unifies them most is that they fascinate.

"There used to be a term for a little veiling piece that one wore, and it was called a 'whimsy,' " she said. "It was sort of fun and alluring. So, you know, a fascinator is the grandchild of the whimsy."

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The first known use of "fascinator," according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, was in 1750 to describe a woman's lightweight head scarf, often of crochet or lace. Stephen Jones, a London-based milliner, said the contemporary incarnation goes back to at least the early 1960s, when women clipped them atop bouffant hairdos.

Fascinators allow ladies to give a nod to the time-honored tradition of sporting hats without obscuring their faces or risking the integrity of their hairstyles.

"It's a hint of it, not a huge thing on the top of your head," said Tania Demeris of Katy. The marketing director for an energy software company bought her first fascinator well before the royal wedding for a cousin's nuptials in Scotland.

Hat-and-fascinator designer Lindsay Halpin of VioletPeacock.com moved to Houston four years ago from the U.K., where, she said, she always wore a fascinator to weddings.

"If you showed up without a hat, it was considered quite rude," she said. "We didn't want to wear full hats all the time, but we didn't want to wear children's headbands. You have this thing in your hair without having hat hair."

Fascinators also work where a floppy hat never could. Yoko Ono wore one of Jones' fascinators (a white little number with a frothy veil) with an evening suit at last week's Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala. "A fascinator works very, very well with a cocktail dress or an evening dress," he said.

The royal wedding was awash with fascinators - some cheeky, some bizarre. The most bizarre, without a doubt, was Princess Beatrice's getup designed by top milliner Philip Treacy. Magazine editor Tina Brown compared the spiraling headpiece to "entwined prawn-colored entrails." Others described it variously as fallopian tubes, an octopus and a giant pretzel that accidentally became caught in the princess' hair. A Facebook page titled "Princess Beatrice's ridiculous Royal Wedding hat" has more than 136,000 fans.

But it wasn't the only one noticed. Victoria Beckham (hers seemed to feature a pair of black swizzle sticks) and the British TV celebrity Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (a blue canoe) were just a few whose foreheads sprouted similarly gravity-defying appendages.

What is it that makes fascinators so … well, fascinating?

"I think it has a little bit of humor in it," Demeris said. "It's a hint of it, not a huge thing on the top of your head. It can look a little bizarre, but it can have a little bit of cheekiness to it. They're kind of flirty and kind of fun."

And she's not just saving hers for weddings. Demeris' father has sent her five or six new fascinators from England, and she recently wore one to a luncheon.

With that kind of versatility, expect to see more of them soon. Bridget Boggess, an associate at Tootsies, said the Houston boutique expects them to be in demand next season. If not already.

Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus were sold out of fascinators this week in Houston.